Who knew how much work hosting the CoRE was? I don’t remember there being this many submissions the last time RealCentralVA hosted the Carnival, but here we go.

The selection criteria focused on practicality, positivity (can’t we all use a bit of positivity?) and simple good writing (read: spelling and grammar count).

Thanks to all who participated this week and thanks to the Carnie folks who allowed me a second spin.

From the short list below, here are the top four posts, in no particular order other than they are all “winners,” for this week’s Carnival are:

Brian Block presents Real Estate is a Process of Elimination; his advice is applicable to all areas of real estate.

People often ask me “How many homes will we have to look at to find the right one?” There’s no standard answer to this question since it varies from client to client. I’ve had several clients look at just 2 or 3 homes and find the one that they ultimately purchased. One of my clients went to see a single home, placed an offer and moved in within a month. (Granted she had looked at dozens and dozens of homes online, but only physically visited one.) That’s a rarity, but a REALTOR’s dream, especially with today’s gas prices. Then there are clients who want to see every single home on the market in their price range.

Salt Lake Mortgage Guy gets biblical on the housing crisis.

Longtime readers know I don’t trust the media and there are a lot of omissions to this story we don’t know. However, one thing you can see all over the Internet is people criticizing, condemning and complaining about failed flippers, overextended homeowners and other financial casualties.

Two themes that are very clear about this downturn is the sense of schadenfreude and the belief there should be no bailouts. As it’s an election year, political candidates are being grilled over solutions to the housing problem. At HousingPanic the opinion on who has the best plan flip flops depending on the day. First it was John McCain who was right, then it was Barack Obama. The underlying theme of “correctness” is based on the assumption of personal responsibility and no bailouts. Hillary Clinton is vilified because her plan costs the most – $30 billion. In a presidential race that has been reduced to labels; black, female, war hero, I think we should vote in the smartest candidate and forget about the tags associated with each contestant.

At the root of the issue of bailouts and schadenfreude is our human sense of fairness. I’ve suggested in the past the housing crisis is like a fire negligently set in an apartment building. Regardless of who set the fire, or how they did it, everyone will suffer if it doesn’t get put out.

Athol reminds us of the importance of good photos and the permanence of all MLS photos.

But then there are those special few that push the envelope into uncharted waters and make you fearful that the agent in question could be out there adding to the gene pool. I’ve narrowed them down to my 24 of my personal favorite photos. I’m building towards a proper hoopla thingy for the 1 year anniversary of the post.

In any case, if you want to vote, just leave a comment for however many are your favorite Bad MLS Photo of the Day posts. I’ll count them up at some point.

Perhaps my favorite post is the one that puts things in the proper context – the long term one – “You’re an idiot” says the educated college student.

The other day, a friend at work and I were talking about our college days, real estate, and he was telling me about a rental purchase that he recently made (his first one). He holds a very high position in the company, and is under immense pressure from the plant manager to get results at work, which results in him working a lot of hours, which greatly reduces the time he has to work on his rental property.

To the victors go the spoils, and in this case, the spoils are links and all the commensurate fame and glory. Enjoy.

—————

Here’s the short list:

Real Estate is a Process of Elimination

Chipping Away the “PRICE IS KING” Myth in Home Selling

You Want To Offer Me What? Not Again

The Ideal Listing Commission and its Structure: Performance Based

The Prodigal Homeowner

The 24 Worst Bad MLS Photos of the Year

Do As I Say, Not As I Do. The NAR And Banks

Texas: The Next Real Estate Boom?

“You’re an idiot” says the educated college student

—————

Carnival Photo courtesy of.

—————

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Next week’s Carnival will be hosted at True Gotham .

Update 04/09/2008: Drew was kind enough to do a podcast with me discussing the Carnival and blogging in general.